


Yesterday When You Were Young

by orphan_account



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Love Triangle, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-21
Updated: 2011-06-21
Packaged: 2017-10-20 15:13:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/214111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elena attends Tyler and Caroline's wedding with mixed emotions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yesterday When You Were Young

**Author's Note:**

> Tile from the song "Can't Go Back Now" by The Weepies.

Elena is five years old and she thinks she knows everything. Or at least almost everything. There are definitely things that she is _sure_ about.

There is no such thing as monsters, and if there are monsters, they are definitely not hiding in her closet. She and Caroline and Bonnie will be friends forever. And when she grows up, she will marry Tyler Lockwood.

They’re five years old and in the small plastic playhouse in Elena’s backyard. “Will you marry me, Elena?” Tyler asks.

“Maybe.” Elena bites her lip, thinking about it hard. “Yes.”

Tyler leans toward her and kisses her on the lips, just like the grownups do. It’s Elena’s first kiss, weird but exciting.

 

 

Caroline is standing in front of the mirror in her slip and garters. Her hair is piled on top of her head in cascading golden curls and even without the dress, she already looks flawless. She screws her face up in disgust, though.

“I don’t like the makeup. Maybe it’s too much. What do you think, Elena? Do I look like a clown?”

“No, you look perfect. Like a beautiful bride.”

“A beautiful vampire bride marrying a werewolf,” Caroline adds.  
“How absurd is that?”

“It’s not absurd at all,” Elena lies. She holds up the shimmering white lace and satin confection that is Caroline’s gown. “Now let’s get you dressed, gorgeous.”

 

 

He finds her in the graveyard, sitting cross-legged and staring at Jenna’s gravestone. Tyler doesn’t say anything, just sits down next to Elena and takes her hand. She leans her head against his hard shoulder.

“How did this happen?” she asks eventually. “How did we end up here, Tyler, in this life full of vampires and witches and death?”

“You forgot werewolves,” he says, kissing her on the forehead.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Elena says. “You shouldn’t touch me. Everyone I love ends up dead.”

He doesn’t respond at first, and she thinks maybe he will lie, tell her she’s wrong and that’s not the case. “Is that why you date vampires? Because they’re already dead?”

Elena chuckles. “Maybe.” They stay there together until the afternoon sun turns to twilight.

 

 

Tyler is standing at the front of the church, looking so handsome in his suit. Matt is his best man, and Elena’s glad they’ve mended fences at last. Stefan is standing there, too, looking very uncomfortable, although his face lights up when he sees Elena come down the aisle.

Tyler watches her, too, and he meets her eyes for a moment. It’s heartbreakingly familiar, a bittersweet glimpse of what almost could have been. Elena nearly trips, but recovers, takes her place next to Bonnie.

And then there’s Caroline, being escorted down the aisle by her father and Steven, so blindingly beautiful that Elena has to look away. She watches Tyler watch Caroline instead. He’s not one of those grooms who cries when his bride comes down the aisle. There is a lock of shocked wonder in his eyes as if he doesn’t believe he’s here, in this moment, about to marry the girl of his dreams.

But there’s a small part of Elena that knows the girl of Tyler’s dreams has always been her.

 

 

They’re in Tyler’s bed, the sheets thrown onto the floor, sweaty and out of breath. Elena lies in his arms, her body delightfully sore and her head a tortured swirl of guilt and delight.

“So… that happened,” she finally says.

Tyler sighs, kisses her softly. “Yeah.”

Elena knows that this was inevitable, that they have been rolling slowly towards this for years. But…

“It can never happen again.”

“Of course not,” he says. But he pulls her closer, molding her body to his, and they fall asleep together. And for just one night Elena sleeps soundly, content, and doesn’t dream.

 

 

When the judge asks if anyone knows if anyone objects, Elena has to clamp her lips shut to keep from speaking. Instead, she holds her peace but the last thing she feels is peaceful.

After the vows, when it’s over and done and Tyler is kissing his bride, Elena remembers that day in the playhouse, that night in his bed. She indulges herself for a second and closes her eyes. She imagines another world, a distant and hazy dream of the life they could have had, Tyler’s lips on hers, pronounced man and wife.


End file.
